Amy Reusch

Giselle 10:20: sissonne failli assemblé... Sometimes shortened to failli assemblé. I don't know what the turning chugs at 10:04 are called... I don't know what to call a jump that doesn't really loft into the air... I did not see any demi contretemps...

I concur with Mme. Hermoine... These are emboités.... Temps levé would have more the supended dynamic of skipping...

Although of course I know of Sokolow, I've seen little her work. The piece looks like a small masterpiece!

Artistic Director Jim May and the Anna Sokolow Theatre/Dance Ensemble is seeking support for the company's reconstruction of choreographer Anna Sokolow's work Lyric Suite (1953) last performed in 1991. Lyric Suite premiered in Mexico City in 1953 and presented in New York City the following year. Louis Horst in Dance Observer wrote, “It is one of the finest examples of lyric theater dance. It speaks in abstract and stark simplicity, translating the qualitative moods of the music into penetrating and evocative movement designs. Superbly choreographed and thoroughly integrated with the music, its lyric beauty has a direct appeal to kinesthetic response". They are seeking $5,000 by November 15, 2012: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/2075112834/anna-sokolow-lyric-suite?ref=category http://kck.st/XcRPOn

I have more respect for Joe DiMaggio than either Koch brother, and since so many of us still call that road the "West Side Highway", it seems completely right to continue to call the theater the "State Theater". It also honors the memory of the history before the Koch brothers.

It seems to almost sort of a club designed to help dancers stay connected and realize they are still valued... not entirely sure... To some extent the events are public with videos made public... In other cases it seems they make some attempt to keep some slight privacy so that candid remarks come freely... It seems the full videos of the panel discussion will be available over youtube to members rather than general public, but maybe the intention is just to create some revenue so that the organization can self by getting people to join [thereby joining the financial effort] rather than giving it all away for free at a loss to the organiation? There was some sound of a slight drsperation about the thousands interested in their efforts with so few joining and adding the membership fee. Sounds to me like a good candidate for a kickstarter campaign or some other form of crowd source fundraising. I first became aware of the organization because they an interesting panel of dancers from the ballet company originally resident at Radio City. They also bought together the original West Side Story cast (i believe I have the right organization). It is a good thing someone is doing this, even if it isn't the most organized... Perhaps as they find funding, their organization will improve... In the meantime I'm glad they are doing it. Balanchine is perhaps better covered than most by oher organizations, but still, there are dancers with stories to add. It was a fascinating evening, quite long (it concluded around midnight I believe) with many Balanchine dancers in the audience as well as on stage. I tried to take notes, but the iPad was not congenial... (anyone like to volunteer what I meant by "Ctbuimg!"?). (and the three hour drive home induced lack of sleep has not enhanced my memory abilities...) First up were clips from On Your Toes and Louisiana Purchase... Slaughter on 10th Avenue... Followed by anecdotes from Barbara Milberg Fisher, Vida Brown, Barbara Walczak, Gene Gavin, Patricia Wilde and Marge Champion, moderated by Candice Agree & Robert Greskovic. Marge Champion talked about how, in the midst of all this broadway choreography, Balanchine took them all to see John Cage perform ... that the midst of everything he was always curating/encouraging sophistication their outlook on art... If I've got that right... Balanchine the guide, the teacher, was often the theme of the evening... With Allegra Kent almost tearing up at the thought of how Balanchine brought her out as someone special, not just a blend in to anonymity of the crowd, that he was the first to encourage her to find herself as an individual. I am sure I am not quite saying this right... Perhaps someone who was there could relate her intended message better. I thought the use of close ups both choreographically and cinematographically was adept... Someone reAlly understood the possibilities of the constrained space of the camera frame. The wider shots didn't work as beautifully for me, just a little too safe to come as much to life as the close-ups and I found myself wondering how many takes had been allowed and whether Balanchine would have worked the camera framing differently with more takes. Also, the music sometimes seemed added on top of the dance, as if someone had looked at the footaged and decided to add musical sound effects to the movement... Less effectively than it would have been had Balachine decided to choreograph something to those notes... I wonder what music he originally had to work with and whether it was different than the final sound track. The choreography certainly looked more sophisticated in minute structure than the music. Not sure which footage had it, but there was a charming sequence where the ballerina did chassé tour and her partner would catch her at the height of the tour... I can't tell from the fypos in my notes, who said what when but... If wait until I make sense of my notes, I'll never get to it. Here goes... John Clifford talked about how he was first brought in as a choreographer, then later asked to be a dancer... (I had always assumed it was the reverse order) There was a lot of amusement about Balanchine's concept of adding jazz steps into his work... perhaps ball change not much different from a loose balancé... Balanchine would announce it was time for jazz step and the balancé would appear... But then later there was talk about how much jazzier the original Concerto Barocco had been, that the slower tempo had allowed for a bigger jazzier dynamic than todays tempo... But the moderator, (Nancy Goldner? Robert Greskovic?) mentioned that some of the original interpreters of the rolls claimed their tempos had been much faster than today's). Seemed that tempo observed and tempo felt by the interpretter were perhaps two different things... (even if in fact they were the same)... Was it Gene Gavin talking about his audition for Balanchine after touring Nutcracker with Savenska Franklin company? He was convinced he was about 3 down from the top there and inagined given the technique of his competitors that he would not be chosen... And yet he was the one taken... Balanchine saw something in him ge liked above the virtuosity of the others. Of course, we don't know what actually took place... But it got me wondering about Balanchine's taste in danseurs... Have we had a discussion of the Balanchine Dansuer? I would perhaps venture that movement personality (as opposed to in your face show biz personality) was very important to Balanchine. Another running theme running through the evening was suddenly being pushed onstage with minimal or no rehearsal because an injury required sudden cast change... Vida Brown had a charming story of being suddenly chosen over higher up dancers because she was the superior quick study. It's better to hear the stories than my lame summary though... There was an interesting story about Stravinsky changing to 12 tone music after previously being against it... and there is a particular silence in Agon where this moment takes place.... Also, there was a comment about Balanchine having diagram notes on a sheet for Agon, which was a total anomaly... The only instance ever mentioned? There were some comments about a piece (not Agon) which was supposedly all new because it had been forgotten but the dancer on the panel remembered it as being essentially the same as an earlier piece of which no film exists! (annoyed at my worthless notes here)... Still, some scholars might want to watch the gootage. The participants were all miked so as long as tape was running the material is there... Allegra. Well. I adore every time anyone catches Allegra kent speaking. If she didn't exist, Gorey would have had to invent her. She had some memories to share in her unique manner.. Just catching her voice saying "dippity doo" is an incredible artifact of the era. She had a lovely quote near the end of how Balanchine seeing the person in the dancer ' saw novels in us, in some cases short stories... even sequels... ' Loved the evening. The footage was stunning. In addition to those mentioned above, Bettijane Sills, Carol Sumner, Merrill Ashley, Frank Ohman had a lot to contribute. The personality on stage was very different from what we think of now in Balanchine performances.

I'm sorry, those were iPad fypos.... "Rare" film footage...

Actually, what surprises me most is how little mention of this there has been, given the participants... Without facebook mentions, I wouldd have missed it. (until abatt posted),. Someone on facebook who couldn't go was asking about youtube posting and the response was that the panel discussion would probably go up online but the rare film footage could not be put there. Privacy on Facebook is such an odd thing... I heard Marcus Galante talking about the event.

I suspect the organization does not have much support staff, but am glad they decidd to put the event on all the same... Looking forard to your moderating, rg, despite the out of date bio...

I don't seem to find any mention of this event... (please delete if this post is redundant)... but I imagine there is interest in it from Ballet Alert folks...: Dancers Over 40 presents a tribute to George Balanchine, and to an incredibly talented group of performers who worked with the master during his tenure at NYCB. DO40’s first-ever ballet event features Merrill Ashley, Vida Brown, John Clifford, Gene Gavin, Allegra Kent, Frank Ohman, Barbara Milberg Fisher, Bettijane Sills, Carol Sumner, Barbara Walczak and Patricia Wilde. Extremely rare film and video clips will be shown, including, but not limited to, excerpts from the Zenobia Ballet, On Your Toes, Western Symphony 1st and 3rd movements (with Gene Gavin and Allegra Kent), Sanguinic, Square Dance and Divertimento #15, Fast Variation (featuring both Merrill Ashley and Patricia Wilde), Pulcinella (Carol Sumner), Raymonda Variation and Who Cares? (Bettijane Sills and Frank Ohman), and Divertissement from Midsummer Night’s Dream (Allegra Kent). Dancers Over 40 - Balanchine: Broadway and Beyond Cast Members: Merrill Ashley, Vida Brown, John Clifford, Gene Gavin, Allegra Kent, Frank Ohman, Barbara Milberg Fisher, Bettijane Sills, Carol Sumner, Barbara Walczak, Patricia Wilde with special guest Barbara Horgan, Director of the Balanchine Foundation. Moderator Robert Greskovic, covers dance for The Wall Street Journal. He lives in Brooklyn, New York, where he is a free-lance writer; his Ballet 101: The Complete Guide To Learning and Loving the Ballet was published in 1998 by Hyperion. He has been writing about dance since 1972. He is Associate at Ballet Review, Consulting Editor for DanceView, and a moderator of the Videos and Ballet History topics on the website Ballettalk.com. He is New York correspondent for Dance International, dance essayist for Britannica Book of the Year, as well as New York correspondent for DanceMagazine, Moderator Candice Agree, radio host 25+ years on the New York and Washington, D.C. airwaves, most notably at 96.3FM WQXR, 104 WNCN-FM and WETA-FM, and Moderator Nancy Goldner, author of The Balanchine Variations

I can never remember... Wo was the British grande dame who would demolish dancers before re-building them up, sort of a way getting them out of their own way... Was it DeValois or Rambert? Perhaps he was inspired by her?

I'm not sure the technical groundwork is still there... Emphasis is subtlely elsewhere... Takes away from the choreography's voice if the technique doesn't flow as naturally as the motivation...

Another worthy project!! "Miss Hill" http://www.kickstart...032/miss-hill-0 http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1128883032/miss-hill-0/widget/video.html Martha Hill's bio on Wikipedia might also inpire some interest: http://en.wikipedia....iki/Martha_Hill "Hill remained the director of dance at Juilliard until 1985, training generations of dancers to the highest level of technique and artistry. Her students included Paul Taylor, Muriel Topaz, Pina Bausch,Daniel Lewis, Lar Lubovitch, Dennis Nahat, Linda Kent, Bruce Marks, Mercedes Ellington, H.T. Chen, Martha Clarke, Susan Marshall, Jenny Coogan, Robert Garland, Mark Haim, Henning Rübsam and Stanley Love. Hill was named Artistic Director Emeritus in 1985, but continued to teach at Juilliard for several years."

I realize we're now on to Gorey, but going back o McBride, didn't Balanchine tell her something along the lines that it was a good thing he took her into the company because she would never have passed an audition? I have always been mystified as to what he could have meant by this....

Would be wonderful for Kennedy Center.

This project looks like it will bear beautiful fruit The video appeal is a treat all on it's own... http://www.kickstart...at-the-de-young

But she has also had an interesting "beyond dancer" life... performing Arts correspondent for NBC News, executive director for Balanchine Foundation, director and co-founder for Morphoses... Those are serious feathers for anyone's cap...

Thank you, i've been wondering for years and years and years....

Look at that arch!

That is the kind of proof I was looking for, thank you.... Sometimes we get things passed own through the generations in class that had their start in some teacher's imagination....

I've heard that before, but do we have proof? (I always thought one needed to beat as fast as paw batting between two cats...). I've never seen a cat leap like a pas de chat, but I can imagine them picking them up high to avoid stepping in water.... Perhaps you could do Pas de Chat next?

I very much liked this portrait.... a philospher artist...

I'm happy to report that American Dance Guild Festival 2012 is beyond fully funded with 19 days left to go.

Beyond the grave? In honor of the inspiration we could have a po-mo mash-up of Balanchine knock-offs... If carefull done, it could be an interesting commemtary about just how hard it is to do well.

It's not August yet...